Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/157

Rh this sarcophagus, is there any lack of monuments of that memorable man? Surely not. Cities in Asia and in Africa called after his name— Alexandria, Alexandretta, Samarcand, Astrakan, Candahar, which is Iskander—bear witness, while whole tribes of the East and South add their testimony.

A French traveller describes a tribe settled in the regions of Persia, who boast of their descent from the Hellenes (Yunani) that were left there by Alexander the Great (Iskander Roumi), and he quotes Marco Polo's account of such a people, remnants of the Macedonians, as dwelling on the borders of Chinese Tartary; and English travellers on reaching Kafiristan (so-called by their neighbours, who are fanatical Afghans) have been surprised to find there a nation of "nearly a million of warriors, descendants of Greek colonists left by Alexander the Great at Candahar (Iskenderhar) and at Cabul." These people have a bias towards Europeans," wrote Major Gordon in a letter to the "Times" of February 5, 1880, "and call for their help against Afghan enemies who surround them and harass them." They call themselves Kami. Even the name of their city, Cabul or Kabul, shows their Greek origin, for it was formerly Κάμων πόλις—Camboul, city of the Cami. Remains of Greek art and workmanship are found among them, and even to this day "they hold on to an ancient Greek Pagan Religion," and worship Baggheush (Bacchus).

It may be supposed that by this time English missionaries from India proper have succeeded in reaching them so as to show them the light of the Gospel. Is it not to be wished that Greeks would join in the work of imparting true civilisation and saving knowledge to these benighted heathens who may be called their kindred?

In Africa, too, a Greek explorer recognised as descendants of ancient Greeks the tribe of Somali.

Are there not, then, in the world traces of Alexander's success, monuments of his genius and power, and of his triumphs, not only as a conqueror of nations, but as a benefactor of mankind. It is true that his victories were not complete in other ways, for, while he grieved that there had been only one world for him to master, he did not gain that greater, harder victory—the conquest of himself.

His memory is stained with innocent blood, his character befouled with dark crimes, but that character was made up of contrary qualities, and displayed some very noble features. So have I seen in a hut on the site of his native town, Pella, in Macedonia, a delicate fragment of Greek sculpture on a marble block imbedded in a wall of mud and straw.

We may assert that memorials of Alexander the Great survive in distant regions of the earth; such are the fruits of his policy in pushing forward the frontiers of the civilised world; in spreading the language,